


Cinderella (working title)

by stupidityeatsme



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Alternate Reality, Cinderella - Freeform, Cinderella AU, Dreamatorium, F/M, kind of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-24
Updated: 2019-06-24
Packaged: 2020-05-19 03:56:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19349011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stupidityeatsme/pseuds/stupidityeatsme
Summary: Playing Inspector Spacetime without Troy can get a little predictable. Annie suggests another story they can play.





	1. Inspector Spacetime Won't Work Out

For a stretch of at least a few months, if not longer, Abed practically lived in the Dreamatorium. Troy of course played with him as much as he could have time for, but on the occasions that he had class or homework or other responsibilities, this left Abed to play alone. Not that he minded playing alone - in fact, sometimes it was easier because it gave him his own control of all of the characters and situations. He didn't have to worry about the will of another player. But other times it could get lonely, a little too predictable. Sometimes, it was nice to have another person to add a little bit of interest to his stories.

After a long stretch of a four hour story, Abed emerged from the Dreamatorium for dinner. To his pleasure, Annie made buttered noodles, his favorite dish. He grabbed a serving for himself and went into their small excuse of a living room where Annie was sat watching Cinderella. He stood behind her chair and said, "Thanks for making buttered noodles."

Without looking up from the screen, she replied, "No problem. How was your game?"

"A little anticlimactic. It's a good thing there's no real audience, because Inspector Spacetime solo adventures tend to get bad ratings," he said as he ate. He sat down on the floor next to Annie's chair and watched as Cinderella bolted down the stairs, looking back at her shoe and ultimately deciding to leave it behind.

Annie asked, "Don't you ever get tired of doing Inspector Spacetime all the time?" 

"Not really," Abed replied, "but it can get hard doing Inspector Spacetime without Troy. I'd ask you to play with me, but you're never really that good at it. No offense."

She shrugged. "None taken." But then, as she watched Prince Charming running around the kingdom, she suggested, "Why don't you try a different story. Something like, oh, I don't know... Cinderella?"

Abed looked at her. She looked at Abed. "I don't normally do Disney-style romances. It's not really my style."

Annie smiled at him with her pre-school teacher smile. "I thought the beauty of the Dreamatorium is that it isn't you that you're playing. It doesn't need to be your style. So, come on, let's do it! It'll be fun, and I bet I would be a better Cinderella than a constable."

Abed considered this for a moment, staring at his noodles, staring at Annie's shiny eyes, staring at Cinderella as the Prince slipped the glass slipper onto her foot. He must've had something weird about feet. Why would he not have remembered her face? Or, at the very least, her beautiful blond hair? Surely he would have realized that neither Anastasia nor Drisella shared any features than his supposed true love. The story was filled with plot holes and if Abed had the chance to control the story, he could fix it nicely while still using all of the classic 1950s Disney tropes.

"Yeah, let's do it," He said.

Cinderella and Prince Charming rode off in their marriage carriage and the movie ended. Annie and Abed cleaned up their dishes, and got prepared for their next adventure in the Dreamatorium.


	2. The Actors

To prepare for their story, Annie put on a plain dress - she figured it would make imagining herself in a ball gown a little easier, since the imagination part of the Dreamatorium was always her weakest link. Plus, Cinderella wears a dress throughout the entire movie, so it would help regardless.

Abed prepared by sketching a quick outline in his brain of the story. It was rare that he did full-length films in the Dreamatorium, so he knew that this would take a little bit longer than most of his games and would require a little more planning. He also put on plain clothing at Annie's request.

When the two met up in the Dreamatorium, he asked immediately, "Are we going with Disney's plotline completely to script? Or are we doing Rodgers and Hammerstein live on television movie starring Julie Andrews? Or are we doing the Rodgers and Hammerstein 90s movie starring Brandy? Or-"

"Why don't we just start the story and see where things take us?" Annie smiled. Abed nodded and smiled back at her. She was good at keeping him grounded, which was the beauty of her living there and even the beauty of playing in the Dreamatorium with her.

"Render environment," Abed said, "Cinderella's cottage."

All at once, the world around them changed from a small black and yellow room to a room of similar size, but now with windows and a fireplace and a table and a staircase off to the side. Annie now wore a blue dress and a brown apron and held in her hand a wooden broom with bristles made of hay. Instinctively, Cinderella started sweeping the wooden floor.

Then, from the stairs came her two evil step-sisters, the first (which Abed was currently playing) had the appearance of Britta, and the second had the appearance of Shirley. "Cinderella!" Britta cried out. "Cinderella, my tea!"

Annie rolled her eyes and said, "Really, Abed? Britta and Shirley?"

And then Britta squeezed her face together angrily and cried out, "Drisella, this little wench is calling me by the name of some... some common foreigner! And clearly she's losing her mind from all of the rest and relaxation she's getting, wouldn't you agree?"

In real life, Abed stepped to where Shirley was standing, and, as Shirley, replied to Britta, "I agree completely Anastasia! Any servant girl who has time to dream and wish obviously deserves more work. Cinderella, go clean our bathrooms. And, Cinderella, don't forget our tea!!"

Cinderella, feeling defeated and a little bit annoyed that Abed chose the appearances of her friends in order to bully her, quietly poured tea into three cups. She gave one to Britta (whom Abed now played once again), set the second one in front of Shirley, and kept the third for herself.

"You think you get tea?" Britta taunted. Shirley smirked behind her. Then, swiftly, Britta swiped the tea cup away from Cinderella, chugged the entire thing, and then threw the cup on the ground that it broke. "Clean up that mess, Cinderella! For god's sake, have you no remorse?" And then Britta cackled again.

Cinderella bent down to started sweeping up the broken porcelain when there was a knock on the door. Not the door of the Dreamatorium, of course, but the door to Cinderella's cottage. Without any of the three answering it - Cinderella couldn't because she was busy cleaning, and the step sisters couldn't because they were now only background characters - it opened, and there in front of them appeared Troy dressed in the attire of a nobleman.

"Troy?" Cinderella stood up.

"No," Troy said, "it is not Troy. For I am the prince's right-hand man, and I am here to announce that the king is dying of old age, and the prince is searching for a wife. All of the young maidens in the land are invited to a ball tomorrow night so that the prince might find a bride."

In real life, Abed ran over to where Britta was seated and squealed so loud that it actually hurt Annie's ears.

"Abed!" Cinderella scolded.

Britta, using Abed's voice, said with annoyance, "Pause simulation."

Around them, everything faded away and they were completely in reality. Abed became himself, not Britta any longer, and Annie stayed with her own appearance but now wore her own dress instead of rags. Abed stared at her with great annoyance. "If you're going to keep breaking the fourth wall like that, we're going to have to stop."

"I'm sorry," Annie said in her pity-me voice. "I just don't understand why you're choosing to use our friend's appearances."

Abed explained, "Because we can't render ourselves as cartoons in here, it would be too hard for you to wrap your mind around. I figured that the easiest solution would just be to use people that we already know. Hence Britta and Shirley being the step-sisters, Troy being the prince's right hand man, Pierce being the king, and Jeff being the prince. Plus, you've already been rendering Cinderella as yourself. I figure for you this is some kind of self-insert, which is fine. I'm rolling with it." He pointed finger guns at her and said, "Adaptability."

"But Abed, this is all of my friends... Except for you."

"I realize that," he said. "I don't really mind, Abed can sit this one out."

Annie pouted. "But Abed, I'm hanging out with you. I want to actually hang out with you. Why don't you be the prince instead?"

Abed furrowed his eyebrows at her. "But Jeff's the prince. Logically, he has to be the prince. He's the most handsome and manly of the group, plus you're in love with him, and you're Cinderella."

Shocked, Annie made that little 'ah!' sound that she made when she was offended, and then retorted, "I am NOT in love with Jeff."

"Sure you are. I've seen the way you look at him, the way he looks at you. You already know that I know that you kissed on our last day of freshman year," Abed explained.

Annie rolled her eyes, clearly embarrassed. "That's not fair at all! You can kiss without being in love. You and I have kissed. Multiple times!"

Now, Abed considered this. "Of course. You're in love with me, and that's why you want me to play the prince instead of Jeff."

"Abed!" Annie cried, and smacked him lightly on the arm. "I'm not in love with you - that's my whole point."

"You're right, that's a good point. You and I have only kissed for stories. We kissed during paintball because that's what made sense for the plot - although I'm pretty sure that you weren't invested in the plot so much as invested in my personality shift. We also kissed when we rendered your kiss with Jeff. But that wasn't really me, that was Jeff. So really we haven't kissed. So you're not in love with me. But, if you're not in love with me, then I don't understand why you want me to be the prince."

Annie groaned and gave up. "Nevermind, Abed. I'm going to go to bed."

"Wait," Abed stopped her. "I'll be the prince if you really want me to."

"Thank you."

"Alright," Abed said, getting back into his position. "Resume simulation."


End file.
